Enterprise-scale backup systems often involve many large arrays of storage devices, as well as different types of devices. Such devices are typically deployed under a maintenance scheme in which old devices are periodically updated or faulty devices are fixed or otherwise accommodated through system software. The update and maintenance of hard drives (HDDs) and solid state devices (SDDs) is typically performed by remotely updating, replacing, patching or otherwise modifying the firmware within each device or within a controller controlling one or more devices.
Firmware is typically stored in a non-volatile (NV) portion of a device, such as in a flash memory module or programmable logic circuit. Traditional firmware upgrade or replacement techniques involve re-flashing or re-burning the firmware on a device-by-device basis. Many large scale storage systems utilize hundreds or thousands of disks organized in RAID (redundant array of independent disks) arrays or other similar arrays. Such arrays contain disks that typically need to be upgraded at the same or nearly the same time. Clearly doing this one disk at a time can be a very labor-intensive process. More importantly, it can be very disruptive to customer processes as well since the upgrade requires that the individual storage devices be shutdown and perhaps even physically removed from the storage array. This type of upgrade procedure is referred to as an “offline” upgrade since the device to be upgraded is taken offline (powered down or idled) in order to perform the firmware change. Not only can the upgrade procedure affect many disks in a system, it can also cause a significant delay in backup operations since reconfiguration times can take anywhere from a few minutes to several hours to complete, and may be performed on a recurring schedule such as monthly, quarterly, and so on. Some hardware based RAID devices may provide a disk firmware upgrade feature that allows for online upgrades in which the device can remain powered up and in place in the system. However, there is presently in the storage device industry, there is no standard way to realize online disk firmware upgrades for software RAID systems.
What is needed, therefore, is a firmware update system and method that efficiently updates storage device firmware without requiring that the devices be taken out of service or shutdown for any appreciable amount of time.
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